Economics & Finance / Economic Theory / Behavioral Economics

Why Poor Trust Blocks Cooperation? A UK vs Africa Experiment Reveals Shocking Truth

Marcel Fafchamps, Ruth Vargas Hill

Think poverty in Africa is due to moral failure? Think again. This video dives into a groundbreaking 2015 study by Marcel Fafchamps (Stanford) and Ruth Vargas Hill (World Bank). They ran lab experiments in the UK, Kenya, and Uganda to test how redistribution—like stealing, burning, or giving—affects people's willingness to join groups that could make everyone richer. The results? African participants were more generous and less selfish than Brits. But they were also far more suspicious of strangers. That lack of trust, not morality, is the real killer of cooperation. Watch to discover why being good doesn't always mean you'll win, and what this means for economic development.